What Became My Grieving Ceremony

Paperback | March 30, 2014

Pricing and Purchase Info

$16.16 online

$17.95list pricesave 9%

Earn 81 plum® points

Prices and offers may vary in store

Quantity:

Ships within 1-3 weeks

Ships free on orders over $25

Not available in stores

about

Cara-Lyn Morgan joins those young Canadian poets who are driven by family experience to communicate with their pasts in order to inform their futures. Morgan's complex cultural history that was generated from her Métis mother and her Afro-Caribbean father necessitates an exploration of their struggles as distinctive cultures. It also insists on understanding the connectivity of her ancestral, cultural roots and the disparate values that shaped her.

"What Became My Grieving Ceremony draws us into a sprawling family, and we rub shoulders with Fr. Ed; Patrick, the daemonic uncle; Margrette Monkman; Leotha and with the author herself as she conducts her personal and familial archeology, locating the self in its web of relations. Morgan is also on a linguistic search for a lost Michif, that unique Western Canadian tongue, born of the union of two races. Following her, I was led to the wakes, the barns and various kitchens of her people, where I found myself both a stranger yet also home." - Tim Lilburn

"Elegant and empathic, this fine book plumbs not only grief, but takes us through its rites: the anticipation of loss and its initial sting; the shouldering of a despair so vivid it hurts to succumb to memory's unheralded quietude. Drawing from her Métis and Trinidadian heritage, Morgan counterpoints the unassuaged suffering of her people with her family's, experiencing them as only one alert person can. Open yourself to these poems, become their host, and live their affirmative message as your own." -John Barton

About The Author

Cara-Lyn Morgan was born in Regina, Saskatchewan and her family has been on the Canadian prairies for many generations. Her Metis mother hails from Spiritwood, SK and her father came to Saskatchewan as a young immigrant from Trinidad, She is a working writer and painter and a graduate of the University of Victoria?s Creative Writing pr...